


A Good Way To Lose

by BlackMarketTrombones



Series: Flash Fiction [21]
Category: POKEMON Detective Pikachu (2019)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-10 10:20:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19904152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackMarketTrombones/pseuds/BlackMarketTrombones
Summary: Roger Clifford finds himself a partner.





	A Good Way To Lose

**Author's Note:**

> "There are bad ways to win—and good ways to lose. What's interesting and troubling is that it's not always clear which is which."  
> -Grimsley, Pokemon Black and White

Despite having lived in Rhyme City all his life, Roger hadn't wanted a Pokemon since he was a child. He’d rejected each one ever since that first creeping suspicion that his father liked Pokemon more than him.

It had been their first and biggest fight, with Father presenting Pokemon to him with increasing insistence and him refusing with equal forcefulness.

Eventually his father stopped trying, but he didn’t spend more time with Roger either. He didn’t give him what he really wanted.

It wasn’t nearly the victory he’d imagined.

All that was in the past now, though. With his father’s crimes exposed and what he’d really been up to all those years made public, Roger couldn’t find it in him to resent Pokemon for taking away his attention anymore. He saw now that he could never have earned his father’s love the way he wanted. It had been a lost cause from the start.

Still, he never planned to have a Pokemon of his own. It was only by accident that he stumbled across the Meowth.

Roger was late leaving the office again. There was just so much to do, what with unraveling all his father’s plots and trying to find a path forward for Rhyme City. He was so tired that he barely registered the crash from the alleyway by the office parking deck. The earsplitting yowl, though, was impossible to miss.

He’d started down the alley before he even realized his feet were moving, and he came across the incensed Pokemon almost immediately.

This Meowth was nothing like the sleek purebreds his father had paraded past him when he was young. It’s fur was matted, it’s whiskers askew, and it hissed and spat, claws gleaming in the dim light.

It was also tangled in string a of trash and struggling to move.

“What have you got yourself into, now?” he muttered as he approached it with caution. The Meowth howled, but it’s back legs were wound together and it couldn’t move.

A distant thunderclap signalled an oncoming storm. With a sigh, Roger crouched and reached for the knotted trash.

After several minutes and curses, he stood back from the freed Meowth and cradled his clawed hand to his chest.

“Go on, then,” he grunted, irritated. “Get out of here. Find someplace dry before this storm hits.”

The Meowth turned up its nose and pranced out of sight.

Grumbling, Roger headed for his car again, making it under the awning of the parking deck just as the rain rolled in. He was fumbling with his keys at the door when—

“Meee~owth.”

Roger looked down. The Meowth sat primly at his feet.

He opened his car door, and it stood up. He automatically moved his leg to block it from entering.

“Meee~ _OWTH_.”

It’s back arched and it’s tail stood on end. With one ear torn and its fur bald in places, it really was a sorry-looking thing.

He found himself stepping aside. “Go on, then.” Meowth sniffed and leapt up into his passenger seat. It turned a circle in place then curled up as if it owned the place.

Roger never thought he’d want a Pokemon for himself. But it wasn’t the worst thing to be wrong about.


End file.
